Archive for the 'The Shift' Category

A few weeks ago I assisted in a workshop for the chemical company Perstorp AB, the Warrington production site. They had found that their offices and production units were too spread out and that they needed to re-arrange parts of the plant according to new needs. As you know the world has changed and today […]

In the daily life you don’t think so much about the origin of things. And at least myself I usually regard vegetables as something ”real” that comes from ”nature”, not as something that has been made up or ”designed”. Last night I saw Jimmy Doherty’s tv programme about genetically modified food, about how the global […]

One of the stories in my TEDx talk was from a vacation in Croatia. I had some ”house red wine” with my dinner one night and it was so good that I asked what kind of wine it was. ”- It’s house red wine.” ”- Yes, but I mean, what kind is it?” ”- No, […]

My talk was basically about my experiences from several creative areas, and the pattern I have seen when putting these on top of each other. Instead of a PowerPoint I used the blue and red glove so that the audience could follow the idea and make up their own minds on the pattern I am […]

Twenty years ago there was a tea and coffee store in the block where I was living, and what always struck me when visiting it was that there was no particular smell of coffee in the shop. Today this would of course be impossible; a well dosed smell of coffee is expected in a coffee […]

A few years ago I assisted at a workshop for the Swedish Customs authority, where we were detailing some of their future visions and strategies. They told me that a couple of years earlier they have had another workshop when they suddenly had a eureka moment: ”we have customers!” They realised that by tradition, customs […]

Food is both survival and experience, depending on situation. It also reflects our attitudes in general. The hotdog is definitely a child of its era, industrialism and modernism. Easy to grab and eat on the go, rational, practical and functional. Perfect for its context, where people would no more gather in families for the daily […]

In the old industrial world you would look for the linear connections. If I do this, I will have that result. You would set a goal and then set up a linear process and work with determination towards that goal. Same thing in communication. You would define what you do and then formulate how you […]

The good old product lifecycle model has been questioned, but I can’t help thinking that it is a good illustration to the shift of focus that we can see. The model in brief: when a new offering is launched your first customers will be enthusiasts and after a while the so called ”early adopters” will […]

By now I think that the idea of how the western world has moved from an industrial state into a post-industrial state, is rather accepted. There are plenty of interesting readings to be found on and off line. I will only refer to this briefly. What actually interests me is how this model, this shift […]

Literature is not really my area, but as some people I have talked to have mentioned this, I did a little research and came up with the rough sketch below. Of course literature is already from the beginning ”experience” and there is not the same shift of practice from physical to mental, but still you […]

In the old world things would not change so quickly. Change was predictable. You could extrapolate the current conditions and get an idea of the future. To some extent you can today also, but in some areas that kind of linear predictions can be quite risky! Apart from all the physical uncertainties you also find […]

Holistic, integrated product development – what does that mean? Well, if you want to be successful today and tomorrow, if you want to be innovative and competitive, then it will be too slow, inefficient and irrelevant to first develop a physical functionality and then try to powder on some experience values. You will need to […]

I am trying to find the connection between all these aspects. Which are the drivers in this transition that so many products and services go through? I can see so clearly the ”before and after”, in so many areas. But how can I explain it? I think a part of it is about choice. Let’s […]

The shift from modernistic to post-modern, physical to mental, basic to added value can be seen in big and small. What’s interesting is how this shift of focus is scattered around all possible areas, taking place at different times. Many areas are still in the modernistic, physical, basic stage, and will still be for some […]

Even in the major world conflicts you can see how focus has shifted from physical to mental. If you simplify this vast and complex subject into four images you may see this pattern: World War 1: Basically traditional warfare man-to-man in the fields. World War 2: Modernistic, industrialistic warfare added the use of not only […]

This shift in focus is also compatible with the idea of our brains being split in two parts. Even though the brain physically is much more complicated than that, it’s a handy model for discussing different ways of thinking. Maybe also for discussing the competencies needed in this new context. Again, I think it is […]

Here is a first rough illustration of the shift in various areas. Of course this model is very simplified and I want to point out the aspects which are increasingly in focus, not an absolute truth! Obviously the later aspects don’t replace the earlier. But for me the change of focus is quite evident. You […]

Suddenly it struck me that while many of us have been amazed by the creative and innovative opportunities provided by Internet and the web, our world has changed in so many other ways. Internet is an important part in this change, an accelerator even, but not the only one. Everything is different, or will be. […]

Utility, experience and value

This blog explores the expressions surrounding us, the dimensions of an experience and how to be effectively innovative within and beyond limits.